Saturday, 30 April 2016

The world is falling into chaos. The gods are dead, the sun is frozen in the sky and a horde of dredge have erupted out of the northern wastes, destroying the lands of humans and varl before them. A great caravan has escaped out of the chaos, but its leaders have learned that the dredge themselves have been displaced by an even greater threat: a darkness that is spreading from beyond the north, consuming everything it touches. The last humans and varl converge of Arberrang, the greatest city in the land, to make a final stand and hope that the threat can be defeated.

Released in early 2014, The Banner Saga was a remarkable game. Using an art style reminiscent of mid-20th Century Disney animated films and excellent, turn-based combat married to Battlestar Galactica-style story of people on the run and having to deal with moral complexities along the way, it was an excellent, original game. It was, however, let down by repetitive, grindy combat and a questionable decision to combine experience points (for levelling characters) and money (for buying supplies and equipment) into the same mechanic, dramatically limiting your ability to progress through the game. It also had a punishingly hard ending, although this was fixed with some post-release patches.

The Banner Saga 2 picks up days after the end of the previous game. The grand caravan has destroyed the dredge Sundr, Bellower, but is still having to flee westwards. The game opens with your caravan escaping downriver by boat. You pick up some new characters along the way and their perspective, helped by a handy "Previously on The Banner Saga" intro, quickly gets everyone up to speed on the plot. The original game started in media res and you were some way into the game before things started making sense, but The Banner Saga 2 is a bit more welcoming in that it sets up the plot and actually resorts to helpful exposition on occasion.

Not long into the game a major event takes place (which is so epic that I refuse to spoil it) and the caravan has to divide into two forces. The new, second caravan is led by the varl mercenary Bolverk and his company, the Ravens, and consists of the more morally dubious and financially-motivated members of the caravan. It's fascinating to play as this group, because they are much more amoral and inclined to act pragmatically, whilst the other caravan (led by whoever survived the final battle in the first game) is more inclined to honourable behaviour. Alternating between the two groups is fascinating. Both have their own troubles to overcome, with the main caravan having to brave a magical forest and political infighting amongst the human clans, whilst the second has to travel through a terrifying underground landscape and confront the true scale of the darkness growing in the north. Both storylines unfold with pitiless inevitability. The story choices you have to make are often hard, and however you proceed there will be deaths and chaos.

Combat is much-improved from the first game. There are far more unit types on both sides than before, and the introduction of the centaur-like horseborn, several new human factions and new types of dredge (including a new Sundr) result in much more varied gameplay than before. There are also new battlefield obstacles that have to be negotiated and the ability to assign characters not in your main party to supporting roles. Combat was solid in the first game, but is absolutely superb in the second. You also get more renown for winning battles, which helps with the balancing the need to level up characters with keeping your followers fed.

As with the first game, it is graphically beautiful and the music is absolutely fantastic. But what this series has done so well is the atmosphere, the feeling of a land that is dying and slipping into oblivion and the last few survivors making a stand against the darkness no matter the cost. Few video games have managed to instill such a feeling of desperation into things (Mass Effect 3 and XCOM occasionally came close), and never so consistently. It's a gripping game that demands "just one more go".

The biggest problem with the game is length. These are low-budget but also low-cost games, so The Banner Saga coming in at around 9 hours in length felt just right. The Banner Saga 2 clocks in at just over 6 hours, which does feel a little too short. The pacing is tremendous and you certainly get your money's worth in terms of atmosphere and replayability, but the short length of the game did feel a little disappointing. But The Banner Saga 2 is the first game since Max Payne 2 (2003) to have such a short length but really sell it quite well. The story also ends on a cliffhanger, but considering this was a planned trilogy from the start, that's not a surprise.

The Banner Saga 2 (****½) is a short game but makes up for that with a gripping story, a fantastic world and tremendously entertaining, conflicted and haunted characters. This is a video game that can stand toe-to-toe with the best of fantasy literature for the world it has created. It is available on PC now and is coming to tablet and consoles later this year.

The nations of Europa are struggling with threats from within and without. Vast ice sheets cover the north of the world and everyday survival can be a challenge. Technology is advancing, with the invention of airships and firearms, but the Mage Houses despise these developments and actively fight them. A would-be emperor, Camjiata, has been defeated but political turmoil has been left in his wake.

Cat Barahal, a young orphan growing up in the city of Adurnam with her aunt, uncle and cousin, is about to reach her majority when she discovers that a pact was made when she was younger. This pact means she must marry one of the feared Cold Mages. As she reluctantly goes along with this arrangement, she discovers secrets about her past, her family and her culture, and what this means for the future of Europa as a whole.

Kate Elliott has consistently been one of the most interesting fantasy authors working over the last twenty years. Her seven-volume Crown of Stars series, set in an alternate history version of Europe, was fascinating, well-characterised and offered fascinating commentary on religion and society. The Crossroads trilogy was much more complex and original, whilst also being tighter, and featured similar musings on both the individual and the larger scale of cultures and ideologies clashing across a continent, not to mention featuring one hell of a twist ending. Cold Magic is the opening volume of the Spiritwalker Trilogy and does some similar things but also brings some new ideas to the table.

The setting is vivid and fascinating, a steampunk/icepunk Europe where the sea levels never rose after the last Ice Age (because the Ice Age is still going on). Much of this book actually takes place in lands that were destroyed by floods tens of thousands of years ago, forming the English Channel. There is lots of detail on how people survive in a land where even the hottest summer days can still be chilly, most of it done organically. There's also a rich, unusual but convincing cultural backdrop, particularly the idea that the Mali Empire (one of the wealthiest in history before European colonisation) has been overrun by a plague, sending its incredibly wealthy upper classes to become refugees in Europa where they join forces with the Celts. But if Elliott is one of the best worldbuilders working in epic fantasy, she is also one of the best handlers of character. Cat, our central character, is a strong and confident woman but whose outer confidence and mastery of etiquette hides inner doubts, especially given her lack of knowledge about her parents and real family backstory. A major subplot of the novel is Cat piecing together her history from documents and accounts of the fate that befell her parents, rolling the story back even as it moves forward. Andevai, the Cold Mage that Cat is forced to marry, is painted in similar depths. Initially he appears unrelatable, remote, arrogant and selfish, but considerably more interesting nuances about him emerge as the story unfolds.

Cold Magic's greatest success is how it handles a striking tonal shift. The opening chapters are fairly grounded. Magic exists, but it is not prevalent and the world is dominated more by industry and the move to a steampunk(ish) existence. Then, about a third of the way into the book, Elliott hits the "Let's weird this stuff up" button and we have an explosion of otherworldly creatures, dalliances into the spirit world, animal spirits taking human form, dinosaur lawyers and prophetic dreams. Elliott foreshadows this quite nicely in the opening chapters so the shift is not jarring. There's also moments when the characters become aware of the existence of other worlds (possibly other timelines) and the world seems to teeter on the brink of fragility, recalling (if briefly) the malleable realities of Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History.

Cold Magic (****) is an imaginative, well-written and different kind of epic fantasy. There are some complaints possible about pacing (not a colossal amount happens in its 500 pages) but the slower pace actually allows the reader to take in the vividly-drawn setting and atmosphere more completely. Those looking for a pedal-to-the-metal action novel may want to look elsewhere, but for those who like imagination and immersion in their fantasy, Cold Magic is a very good read. The book is available now in the UK and USA.

Friday, 29 April 2016

Welcome to the Lost rewatch project.
Over the next few months I plan to watch all 121 episodes of the TV
series which aired for six seasons from 2004 to 2010. This is very much a
rewatch thread, with the show watched with knowledge of what is to come in later seasons. If you've never watched Lost before, you definitely do not want to read this blog series.

Without further ado, let us continue after the jump.

Two of the less compelling characters on the Island, it has to be said.

Following the news that a Wheel of Time TV series is now officially in development with a major studio, here are the third and fourth parts of my blog series The Wheel of Television: Bringing The Wheel of Time to the Screen. It's worth checking the original posts for the interesting commentary from readers: Part 3 and Part 4.

Part 3: Shaping the Story
Originally published: 25 March 2012

In the first twoparts of this article series, I argued that the current plans by Red Eagle Entertainment and Universal to turn The Wheel of Time
into a series of movies were impractical and unrealistic, and that
adapting the books into an ongoing television series was more logical.
This especially makes more sense in the wake of the success of fantasy
TV projects such as Sky's Discworld TV movies and of course HBO's Game of Thrones.
I concluded that getting the series made by one of the three big
remaining cable channels (Starz, AMC or Showtime) was essential to give
the project the right combination of high production values and a decent
amount of time to adapt the complex storyline.

Story into Seasons
In the second article I suggested that it would be possible to adapt The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt
(the first two books in the series) into one 12-episode television
season. On paid cable, lacking advertisement breaks, this mean just
under six hours to adapt each book to the screen (or three times as much
time as a possible film adaptation). Whilst tight, this would be doable
without too many storylines or characters cut. Later seasons could be
more problematic (particularly adapting the 1,900 pages of the fifth and
sixth books, The Fires of Heaven and Lord of Chaos, into
just twelve hours) though the hope is that the series would be such a
success that later seasons could expand to maybe 16 episodes each (as
AMC has recently done with the third season of The Walking Dead).

At the same time, the later books in the series - particularly the
eighth through eleventh - have some pacing problems and issues that the
TV adaptation would do well to avoid by compressing the more stationary
parts of the story into a shorter space of time, and perhaps moving
things around.

Overall, I envisage the following structure as being potentially successful (note: SPOILERS for people who have not read the books):

Season 1: The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt
This season introduces the principal storylines and characters.
Thematically it is Rand's story of self-discovery as he uncovers the
truth of his birth and his destiny and initially tries to reject it.
Season finale: the battle between Rand and Ba'alzamon at Falme and the
destruction of the Seanchan expeditionary force by the Heroes of the
Horn of Valere.

Season 2: The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising
This season sees Rand investigate the truth of his background and what
he is fated to do. He decides to seize the reigns and take control of
his own destiny and recruit his own allies. Season finale: Rand uniting
the Aiel clans at Alcair Dal.

Season 3: The Fires of Heaven and Lord of Chaos
The turning-point of the series as Rand (and, to a lesser extent, his
friends) become famous and major players in the affairs of governments
as the continent falls into warfare and chaos. Season finale: the Battle
of Dumai's Wells, naturally.

Season 4: A Crown of Swords, The Path of Daggers and Winter's Heart
Rand consolidates his gains and alliances, confronts the resurgent Seanchan and, ultimately, challenges the Dark Ones taint on saidin. Season finale: the Cleansing.

Season 5: Crossroads of Twilight, Knife of Dreams and The Gathering Storm
Rand's journey into the heart of darkness and, ultimately, out of the
other side. Season finale: Rand's epiphany atop Dragonmount and Egwene
reunifying the Aes Sedai in the face of the Seanchan threat.

Season 6: Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light
Rand finally confronts the Dark One. Season/series finale: the Last Battle.

Of course, if the first two or three seasons are successful it might be
possible to extend the series to seven seasons and cover two books per
season, which would be easier in many ways. However, the slowing of the
pace in the latter books as the story expands to cover ever more
storylines and minor characters and the moving away of the focus from
Rand and the other core characters is something that I feel on TV should
be avoided. Post-Dumai's Wells, I also feel the story should start
accelerating and moving decisively towards the ending.

With this structure, it should be possible to get the entire story of The Wheel of Time
done in six years and 70-80 episodes. The majority of storylines and
characters from the books would appear on-screen and the adaptation
would be relatively faithful, and certainly far moreso than in a series
of film adaptations.

Next time: the challenges of showing the One Power, Trollocs, Ogier and massive armies on a TV budget.

Part 4: Practicalities
First published: 2 June 2013

In the first threepartsof this article series, I argued that the current plans by Red Eagle Entertainment and Universal to turn The Wheel of Time
into a series of movies were impractical and unrealistic, and that
adapting the books into an ongoing television series was more feasible.
This especially makes more sense in the wake of the success of fantasy
TV projects such as Sky's Discworld TV movies, the BBC's recently-concluded Merlin and of course HBO's Game of Thrones.
I concluded that getting the series made by one of the three big
remaining cable channels (Starz, AMC or Showtime) was essential to give
the project the right combination of high production values and a decent
amount of time to adapt the complex storyline before going on to
address the issue of how you structure the series from a top-down
approach. In this part I address several major technical and practical
issues standing in the way of adapting the books to television.

Sets and Locations
If
there is one major cost saving that TV shows have over movies, it's
sets. A film with a budget in the tens of millions of dollars can afford
to construct a specific set for each and every scene, and use a different
location in every other shot. TV shows spread their costs more widely by
the use of regular, recurring sets. Think of the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek, the throne room in Game of Thrones or the school library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You can spend a fair bit of money on an impressive set and then spread that cost over dozens of episodes.

With Wheel of Time,
there is one rather huge problem: there is no single standing set that
could be constructed and re-used a lot in the first season (if you recall, in
the hypothetical plan we are discussing the first season would adapt the
first two books, The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt).
The first two books are constantly on the move, taking the characters
from the Two Rivers to Baerlon to Shadar Logoth to Whitebridge to
Caemlyn to Shienar, and thence to Tar Valon, Cairhien and Falme. Later
in the series we would get standing sets and regularly-appearing
locations, such as the Royal Palace in Caemlyn and the White Tower in
Tar Valon (which would debut in the first season, but would not be
revisited until later), but it's a while before such places recur
regularly.

This is fairly headache-inducing, although compensated for to some
extent by how much of the first two books takes place outdoors. This
brings its own headaches in terms of the expense and practical issues of
location filming (dealing with the weather and so on), but at least is
better than having to build dozens and dozens of different sets and then
discard them. A surprising number of locations in the first two books
are in fact pubs of different description (the Winespring Inn in Emond's
Field, the Queen's Blessing, the inn in Cairhien that Rand, Hurin and
Loial stay in etc). A standing 'pub set' could be built, possibly in
modules, with walls and partitions that can be switched around. Combined
with redressing and the use of different camera angles, this can turn
one set into several different locations. The same principal can be
applied to shops, houses and even palaces (the Royal Palace of Caemlyn
could pull double-duty as Fal Dara, for example, if you dropped in a few
partitions and redressed things).

For location filming, Wheel of Time does have some problems with
how much of it is set in large cities (especially later on, when scenes
unfold near-simultaneously in Caemlyn, Cairhien and Ebou Dar). Caemlyn,
for example, would likely have to be a real medieval-looking city,
possibly in Europe, just as both Mdina in Malta and Dubrovnik in Croatia
have stood in for King's Landing on Game of Thrones. Given the
weird and otherwordly nature of Shadar Logoth, on the other hand, it
might be possible to get away with realising that city through small
set-pieces and CGI backdrops (CGI is of course a powerful and useful
tool but we are not at the stage yet where full CGI sets and locations
are believable or affordable on such a scale).

As for where the series should be filmed, there are quite a few options.
Eastern Europe is both affordable and would have the right look for
most of the main continent. The Republic of Ireland (probably not
Northern Ireland, since a lot of the more interesting locations have
already been used by GoT) would also be an attractive option.
Morocco or the American West (heavily CGI-enhanced) could also be viable
options for the Aiel Waste.

Costumes
Costuming is probably the least-challenging aspect of the production,
thanks to both Robert Jordan's clear descriptions in the books and the
availability of costumes and costumer designers familiar with the
appropriate period.

"Awesome. I want 100,000 of them for the next shot."

ProstheticsWheel of Time features a large number of non-human creatures,
including the friendly Ogier and the hostile Shadowspawn: Trollocs,
Myrddraal, Draghkar and so on. Some of these creatures appear
infrequently enough that they can be rendered in CGI: the Green Man
immediately comes to mind. Draghkar and Darkhounds also appear
infrequently enough that this should be viable. Trollocs and Ogier are
more difficult to achieve. Loial is a fairly major character with a lot
of screentime. Rendering him in CGI would require a Gollum-level
performance and technology to achieve satisfactorily, neither of which
may be available on a TV budget and time schedule. On the other hand,
prosthetics/animatronics large enough to depict the Ogier as described
in the books may be stiff and unconvincing. This is something that would
require screentesting to find the best solution.

It should be possible to depict Trollocs by just using large extras with
prosthetics. A mix-and-match of prosthetics could be made available to
blend the different animal parts together to make each Trolloc unique
(or as unique as possible), rather like how the creatures themselves are
created in the books. CGI would be used for scenes with large numbers
of Trollocs (which is most of them) to render more of them in the
background.

"More lightning bolts!"

"Not too many, they cost $10,000 a time!"

The One Power
The One Power is one of the most detailed magic systems ever created,
with a lot of complex rules on how it works, how it's detected and what
the different types of the Power can do. Depicting the One Power on
screen risks looking cheesy - people sticking their hands out and
firebolts roaring off - and depicting people glowing when they embrace
the Source could be confusing (as only those able to use the Power can
sense it when others are using it).

The best way to handle this is as it is in the books, with 'our'
characters initially unable to see or sense the Power itself, only its
effects (i.e. someone pointing and the ground exploding or mist
appearing). As our core characters become more acquainted with the
Power, then we can start to see POV shots from them, showing the glow of
the Power (I'm thinking a subtle haloing effect rather than people
blazing with the light of a thousand suns). We'll only see this if we
have a POV character in the scene who can sense the Power, otherwise
they'll just see the effects.

A related issue is how to handle the issue of Aes Sedai ageing. As
book-readers know, Aes Sedai gain an 'ageless' appearance as they get
older, so that it becomes impossible to tell whether a woman is in her
20s or 40s (and that appearance may be only a reflection of their true
age, as Aes Sedai can live for several centuries). Such an effect would
be prohibitively expensive to achieve with CGI - 'de-aging' Moiraine
alone in her every appearance in the series would cost a fortune, not to
mention the problem being exasperated when a dozen Aes Sedai appear in
the same scene - so this would have to be a practical make-up effect. If
unconvincing or too odd-looking, this may have to be an element from
the books that is dropped or perhaps changed to something less notable.

There are obviously a lot more complexities and practicalities that
would have to be addressed to make these books into a TV show, but these
were a few thoughts on how you'd achieve some basic questions.

This may be the last entry in this blog series, though I may do one more
focused on how you'd write and structure the first episode, to put some
of these ideas into practice.

Following the news that a Wheel of Time TV series is now officially in development with a major studio, here are the first two parts of my blog series The Wheel of Television: Bringing The Wheel of Time to the Screen from 2011. It's worth checking the original posts for the interesting commentary from readers: Part 1 and Part 2.

Part 1: Bringing The Wheel of Time to the Screen
Originally published: 17 May 2011

In Hollywood success breeds imitation. A decade ago Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy made almost $3 billion at the box office. Over the last four years, a series of Discworld TV mini-series have been very successful in the UK, and last month HBO's Game of Thrones
launched to rave reviews and strong ratings, being renewed for a second
season almost immediately. It's likely that we will see a whole new
eruption of fantasy projects in the next few years as Hollywood tries to
cash in on the next big thing.

Almost certainly first on the list for some kind of adaptation is Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series of novels. The Wheel of Time
is currently the dominant force in the epic fantasy subgenre. The
thirteen novels (fifteen, including the guidebook and prequel) have sold
approximately 50 million copies to date in more than two dozen
countries, and the series will be attracting a substantial amount of
publicity next year when the fourteenth and final novel, A Memory of Light, finally hits the shelves. Given the series' immense sales clout and popularity, some kind of adaptation has been on the cards for a while. About ten years ago, Robert Jordan sold an option to NBC, who were considering making a mini-series of The Eye of the World.
Nothing came of this project after those pushing it at NBC departed. A
Japanese animation studio contacted Robert Jordan with a proposal to
adapt the first three books as a series of movies, but they only wanted
to do the first three and change the ending of the third book to the
ending of the entire series. Jordan turned down this proposal.

In
the mid-2000s, Red Eagle Entertainment bought the rights from Robert
Jordan to develop film, computer game and comic adaptations of The Wheel of Time. In August 2008 they entered into a partnership with Universal Pictures to develop a two-hour movie based on The Eye of the World.
Three years on, there appears to have been no movement on this project,
and it's unclear how much longer Universal's option has left before it
expires. Whilst the success of Game of Thrones
may inspire Universal to take another look at the project, I think it's
more likely that we will see the project re-envisaged for television.

In a series of articles I'm going to be looking at the practicalities of bringing The Wheel of Time
to the screen, considering its vast scope, huge cast and immense visual
effects requirements. To start with, let's ask the most basic question
of all.

Should This Even Be Attempted?

There is a strong opinion amongst a subset of Wheel of Time
fans that no adaptation should even be attempted. This is a series of
fourteen very large books, totalling 11,000 pages in paperback when all
is said and done, featuring a cast of almost 2,000 named characters
sprawling across dozens of major and minor storylines. The books are
what they are. Why should they be brought to the screen?

The easy
answer to this is that it's going to happen. At some point, whether
it's next week or twenty years from now, there's going to be an
adaptation of The Wheel of Time
on screen. The books have sold too many copies and there is too much
potential money in a successful adaptation for it to simply be left
alone. As a result, it's better (I think) to be taking this as read and
considering how it may be best achieved rather than simply hoping it
won't happen.

In addition, working out how on earth you'd tackle this project makes for an interesting thought-experiment.

TV or Movie?

This
is the next question and one that has driven a great deal of discussion
over the years. The question results in a paradox which can be summed
up concisely:

The Wheel of Time is too expensive to be a TV series. It needs to be a film.The Wheel of Time is too long to be a film. It needs to be a TV series.

Basically,
the books have too many huge battles, too much magic use, too many
sets, too much location work and too many non-human creatures to be
viable as a TV series. Only a series of movies capable of assigning
hundreds of millions of dollars to two hour-blocks at a time can give
the Wheel the visual look it needs.

At
the same time, the books are too long with too many characters, too
many storylines and too many subplots to be easily adapted as a series
of films. To fit a 700-page novel (let alone the 1,000-page ones in the
middle of the series) into two hours is impossible, which will result in
epic cuts, with major characters and storylines having to be weeded out
(great for Crossroads of Twilight, less so for The Eye of the World).
Having fourteen films in the first place is also hopelessly unrealistic
and impractical, splitting books across multiple films (an option
apparently considered by Red Eagle) far moreso.

For
me, the equation is a simple one to solve. The practical concerns about
effects and budget are serious ones and should not be underestimated.
However, the books don't exactly have a major battle sequence every five
pages (and not one of the battles in the books so far rivals the
battles that Game of Thrones will be depicting soon enough), whilst shows from Legend of the Seeker and Merlin through Heroes, BSG, Babylon 5 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
have handled extensive special effects requirements on extremely modest
budgets before. In short, the practical concerns can be handled or
worked-around on TV. There is no way to address or work-around the cutting of major storylines and characters in a film adaptation.

Of
course, some fans and critics would be happy to see a chainsaw taken to
immense length and the vast cast of characters of the books, and
certainly even a TV adaptation will have to be ruthless with some
aspects of the story. But to work as a film or series of films, The Wheel of Time would have to lose major
elements: the Seanchan and probably the Shaido would have to go for a
start, along with many of the interim obstacles Rand faces on his quest
to unite the world for the Last Battle. Most dangerously, the cutting
would reduce Rand's story to its bare bones: a humble guy from a bucolic
countryside who, with the help of his plucky friends and a wise mentor
figure (albeit an attractive woman rather than an old guy) evades
black-cloaked creatures and eventually goes to a volcano to confront the
bad guy. Yeah, people might think they've seen that story before.

My
conclusion is that if an adaptation must proceed, it must attempt to be
faithful to at least the spirit (if not the letter) of the storyline
set out in the books. Taking this hugely popular story and immediately
ditching 90% of it makes no sense, so the movie option has to be
dismissed (as Robert Jordan himself said many years ago). So now we can
consider a TV show and all the immense impracticalities and challenges
of that daunting prospect.

Next time I'll ponder how you shrink
11,000 pages of dense plotting into a workable outline for a TV series
without destroying the story or scaring off viewers. This will include
questions about the length and structure of the overall series, the
length of individual seasons (can we tell the story of The Eye of the World in five or six hours, or does it need ten?) and what impact that will have on what needs to be cut and what can be kept intact.

Part 2: Structure and Season Length
Originally published: 4 March 2012

In Part 1 (which you can find here) I argued that a screen adaptation of The Wheel of Time
would work much better as a TV series than a series of films, the
option currently being pursued by Red Eagle Entertainment and
rights-holders Universal Studios. As discussed in that article, the
story would have to be substantially gutted to work even as six 2-3 hour
films, and much of the story from the books would be lost. My
conclusion was that a TV series would be the only viable way for the
books to be adapted to the screen.

Cable or network?Once
the conclusion is reached that the story must be adapted to television,
the next question is whether a deal should be pursued with one of the
big, universally-available TV networks in the USA (such as ABC or NBC),
or with one of the smaller, but usually more flexible, cable networks.
If we assume that HBO would not be interested because of their
commitment to Game of Thrones,
that leaves stations such as Starz, AMC and Showtime as possible
contenders. The smaller cable stations, like SyFy, would almost
certainly lack the resources to tackle the project with adequate
funding.

This question is important for practical reasons. Most
notably, the networks usually have longer seasons than cable. If this
was the sole issue, in fact, it would be a no-brainer to go with a
network. With 20-24 episodes per season, it would be easy to cover two
or maybe even three books a season, easily enough to tell the whole
story. This would even include the duller moments later on, though I
would still argue in favour of condensing events in the third quarter of
the series to maybe half the length of narrative they currently span,
if not less, to improve pacing.

Of course, there are drawbacks to
being on a network. The biggest are money and how much of a chance the
series would be given to prove itself before cancellation. Networks are
notoriously trigger-happy on cancelling shows early, even when prior
evidence shows this to be a self-defeating practice. For example, Seinfeld was
almost cancelled at birth due to low ratings, but given another chance
and went on to become one of the biggest American TV shows of all time.
This tendency increases exponentially the more money is poured into a
project. The head of ABC was fired for profligacy after greenlighting Lost's
pilot with an astonishing $15 million budget, even though it rewarded
that investment by going on to become the biggest thing on TV for a
couple of years. A Wheel of Time TV show would require more than the standard $2 million-per-episode budget common to network genre projects (Game of Thrones's
budget is more like $6 million per episode, for comparison's sake),
which would make it much more likely to be dropped should ratings not
match expectations almost immediately.

That said, networks have become more willing to give shows a chance in the last few years. Fox gave both Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles two
seasons each to prove themselves before cancelling them, apparently
learning from the short-termism that led to the premature cancellation
of Firefly several years earlier
(later shown to be a mistake after impressive DVD box set sales).
They've also shown a willingness to invest more money if the show is a
success: Lost's budget (after the generously-budgeted pilot) reached $5 million per episode by the final season, whilst Heroes enjoyed
$4 million per episode until its final season, when the budget was
slashed in the face of sharply dropping ratings. Still, the greater risk
of immediate cancellation makes the networks an uneasy choice to
pursue.

On cable, the issues are different. First off, the success of Thrones on
HBO means that the other big cable networks will almost certainly be
receptive to having a fantasy TV project of their own, especially one
where the books are (or were, before Game of Thrones started
on TV, anyway) even more popular with an even larger fanbase and an
even greater name awareness. Also, whilst the other cable companies
don't have HBO's impressive financial resources, they can usually muster
up larger budgets than most of the standard networks. Shows like The Tudors (on Showtime), The Walking Dead (on AMC) and Spartacus (on Starz) enjoy significantly more resources than most network shows, whilst not quite being in HBO's league.

The
trade-off for more money is shorter seasons. 8-12 episodes per season
is normal on a cable network, and 16 episodes (for Season 3 of The Walking Dead or Season 4 of Oz)
is the absolute maximum, usually only possible after the show has been a
proven success. This is a major limitation in adapting The Wheel of Time for
a cable network. If we assume 12 episodes (probably the maximum
realistic figure for the first season, at least), that means either
hoping the series goes for 10+ seasons (highly implausible) or
condensing the story down, which, if not handled right, could takes us
back to the movie problem of the project not being worthwhile in the
first place.

Length of the seasonsSo the question becomes, how much time is necessary to tell the Wheel of Time story on TV? How many episodes should each book cover? Looking at Game of Thrones on
HBO, the 800-page first novel had to have a noticeable number of minor
plots (mostly flashbacks) and characters shaved off to fit into ten
episodes. If for Wheel we accept
that we have to cover a minimum of two books per season (meaning a
seven season show) and, on cable, only twelve episodes per season will
be available, that gives us the prospect of fitting each Wheel of Time novel into just six hour-long episodes.

This
initially looks dubious, until several things are factored in. First
off, six hours is still twice the absolute maximum length of a potential
Eye of the World movie, and
more likely closer to three times. So it's still the better option from a
time perspective. In addition, Robert Jordan's natural verbosity and
tendency towards detailed descriptions means that fitting 800 pages into
six hours is actually more straightforward than it appears. The Eye of the World is marginally longer than A Game of Thrones (306,000
words to 298,000) but a plot summary of the former is much more
straightforward. The plot is more linear with considerably fewer
characters overall, and certainly far fewer 'main' characters (at least
at this point). Unlike Thrones,
the narrative doesn't need to cover three distinct and major storylines
(and several smaller ones) unfolding thousands of miles apart. There is a
section mid-book where the characters divide into three groups and
reconvene a few chapters later on, but this is still less problematic
than the issues faced by Thrones in its first season. The Great Hunt,
which would form the remainder of a first season, would be slightly
more challenging (due to the characters being apart for a much larger
part of the book), especially from a budgetary standpoint given the
action that takes place at sea, but time-wise it could fit into six
episodes even more easily than the first book (it's somewhat shorter, to
start with).

In short, although it would still be something of a squeeze, it should still be possible to fit The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt into
twelve episodes. Given the superior budgets available on cable, and the
greater likelihood of the show at least making it to a full season
before cancellation is a danger, this leads me to conclude that pursuing
an adaptation on one of the bigger US cable channels is the logical way
to proceed, despite the tighter time constraints.

With
HBO unlikely to want to have a show competing with Thrones on their own
network, one of these three is the most logical choice to make a Wheel
of Time series.

Next time (and hopefully not a
year down the line!): shaping the entire story into a TV series and how
future seasons would face the challenge of adapting both the longer
books in the series and also handling the 'slower' books later on.

Based on the critically-acclaimed, highly successful graphic novels by Garth Ennis, Preacher is the story of a Texan preacher, Jesse Custer, who gets embroiled in a story involving vampires, demons and primordial dark powers whilst he searches for God. Literally.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are writing and directing, with Breaking Bad veteran Sam Catlin serving as showrunner. The TV series debuts on 22 May.

Netflix has greenlit a TV series of The Punisher. Spinning off from the second season of Daredevil, The Punisher will be Netflix's sixth TV series based on characters from Marvel Comics (following on from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders) and will see Jon Bernthal reprising his critically-acclaimed role as Frank Castle.

Steve Lightfoot, who worked on Hannibal as a writer and producer, will produce, showrun and co-write the new series.

Based on Netflix's scheduling and the lead time for their projects, it's unlikely we will see the first season of The Punisher until late 2017 or early 2018.

Thursday, 28 April 2016

The Robert Jordan Estate has confirmed that a Wheel of Time television series is in development with a major studio.

A more detailed announcement is to follow, but the Jordan Estate has confirmed that protracted legal disputes between themselves and Red Eagle Entertainment, who previously held the TV and film rights, have been resolved, clearing the way for a television series.

The timeline of previous events is as follows:

1990: Publication of the first Wheel of Time novel, The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan.

2000: NBC options the Wheel of Time as a network TV show, but drops the option after the people developing the series depart the company.

Early 2000s: A Japanese anime company proposes an edited version of the story which adapts only the first three books into an animated series and concludes the story there. Robert Jordan declines.

2004: Robert Jordan sells the film, TV, comic book and video game rights to Red Eagle Entertainment, a rights-holding company, for $600,000.

2007: Robert Jordan passes away from cardiac amyloidosis. Brandon Sanderson agrees to complete the novel series, working from Robert Jordan's notes.

2008: Universal options the movie rights to The Wheel of Time from Red Eagle for "a seven-figure sum" and a film script for The Eye of the World is developed.

2013: The final Wheel of Time novel, A Memory of Light, is published. Around this time Universal drops its film option.

2014: Sony Television develops an interest in developing a television series based on The Wheel of Time. No option is purchased, but they hold meetings with Red Eagle and with the Robert Jordan Estate.

January 2015: The media rights are due to revert to the Robert Jordan Estate (aka the Bandersnatch Group). Red Eagle self-produce a 22-minute test film starring Billy Zane as Ishamael and air it as a paid-for infomercial on FX, claiming this allows them to retain the TV rights. The Jordan Estate disagrees and requests legal clarification of the situation. Red Eagle count-sues for defamation.

August 2015: Red Eagle withdraws its counter-suit.

At the time Red Eagle withdrew its suit, there was speculation that this was part of a legal manoeuvre which would allow Red Eagle to retain a production credit on the project as it went forward. The full details should be made clearer in the coming days and weeks.

The question now is who has won the rights and where will the show end up being broadcast? I addressed this in my "Wheel of Television" blog series a few years ago (I may reprint and update in the coming weeks in light of this news), but we know that Sony were very interested in the project before the legal storm erupted. Assuming they retain that interest, they have to be the firm favourites to have won the rights. It is very likely that one of the major US cable channels would also be in the running, most likely AMC as they have the financial firepower, the timespan allotment (the 16-episode seasons they are giving - unnecessarily in some cases - to The Walking Dead would be pretty essential for The Wheel of Time), the genre savviness and the pre-existing Sony relationship (from Breaking Bad). Starz, Showtime and FX would also be other potential candidates to be interested. HBO is pretty much out of the running due to their refusal to double-dip in the same genre at the same time, or even within a few years of their previous genre show ending. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that Amazon or Netflix has swooped in on the project as well.

The Wheel of Time spans 14 novels, a prequel, two companion volumes and a computer game. Worldwide sales of the series are approximately 90 million, with over 56 million sales in the United States alone and another 5 million sales in the United Kingdom. It is the biggest-selling work of epic fantasy series* since The Lord of the Rings, dwarfing the sales of all other works in its subgenre, including Shannara (which has just had a second season of its TV adaptation on MTV greenlit) and The Kingkiller Chronicle (which has both a film and TV series in development at Lionsgate). Only A Song of Ice and Fire (the book series that Game of Thrones is based on) is in any danger of overtaking Wheel of Time in sales any time soon. In terms of unoptioned fantasy series, it was by far the highest-profile.

More news as it comes in.

* If you don't count Harry Potter as epic fantasy, which some people do, but that's a separate argument.

Joe Abercrombie and his publishers have unveiled the complete world map (well, the explored bit, anyway) for his First Law novels, and a timeline of when the works take place.

The map shows all the lands that lie within the Circle of the World. Midderland, the island in the centre, is the heart of the Union and the location of Adua, the capital city. Styria, the setting for Best Served Cold, is the island or subcontinent to the east. The North lies to the, er, north with the Orsrung Valley (the setting for The Heroes) located in the mountains and hills south of Carleon. The Far Country, the setting for Red Country, is located to the west of Midderland. Dagoska and the Gurkhal Empire are to the south.

The timeline of stories and books is as follows, with novels in bold and short stories in italics. These short stories can all be found in the new First Law collection Sharp Ends, which was published this week.

566 (spring): A Beautiful Bastard
570 (summer): Made a Monster
573 (autumn): Small Kindnesses
574 (autumn): The Fool Jobs
575 (summer): Skipping Town
575 (spring-autumn): The Blade Itself
575-576 (autumn-spring): Before They Are Hanged
576 (spring): Hell
576 (summer): Two's Company
576-577 (summer to winter): Last Argument of Kings
579-80: Best Served Cold
580: Wrong Place, Wrong Time
584 (summer): Some Desperado
584 (autumn): Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden
584: The Heroes
587 (autumn): Three's a Crowd
590 (summer): Freedom!
590: Red Country
592 (spring): Tough Times All Over
605: New Trilogy Book 1 (due in 2017 or 2018)

The new trilogy, which Joe is writing now, will begin 28 years after the events of Last Argument of Kings (although this may change).

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

HBO have a problem, they've had it for a couple of years and it's getting more of a pressing issue as time goes on. In 2018, Game of Thrones will end and HBO will be left, for the very first time since 1998, without a big hit show that everyone is talking about.

Way back in 1998 HBO, still new to the original scripted drama game, debuted Sex and the City. It was a massive success, got lots of people talking and won HBO a huge number of subscriptions. HBO doubled down on this a year later when it began airing The Sopranos, a violent crime series about the life of mob boss who tries to keep his business running under constant surveillance. Over the next decade HBO aired many critically-acclaimed and popular dramas (including Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Deadwood, Big Love, Rome and The Wire, as well as mini-series like Band of Brothers, The Corner and John Adams) but The Sopranos and Sex in the City were the jewels in the network's crown.

Sex and the City ended in 2004. The Sopranos followed suit in 2007 and it looked like HBO might have to survive without a big, successful show on the air. However, by luck the following season they debuted a TV drama series about vampires. True Blood would go on to almost match the success and buzz of The Sopranos (although not quite the same level of critical acclaim). And just at the point that True Blood's critical and commercial success began waning in 2011, they debuted Game of Thrones, which would go on to become the most successful show in the network's history.

According to HBO, they've never "needed" a massive, genre-defining show to lead with. They get a lot of subscriptions for their sports and movie channels, and their original drama and comedy programming has really been an added bonus on top of that. Their top executives seem relatively sanguine about the possibility that they may end up in a situation where they have no massive, subscription-encouraging series on the air for a few years. How the reality of that feels after twenty years of being the top dogs will likely be a different story, however. More of an issue for HBO has been that original scripted cable drama used to be very much the field they owned exclusively, but now other channels such as Starz (Black Sails and Outlander), AMC (The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad) and Showtime (the new Twin Peaks) are fighting for that space, not to mention the competition posed by Netflix and Amazon with their original programming. HBO isn't the automatic "go-to" network any more for talented creators who want to get a pet project on the air any more.

Paradoxically, despite HBO making quite staggering amounts of money, they have also become more risk-averse. They have cancelled shows after producing pilots and canned projects that should appear to be slam-dunk successes. Embarrassingly, some of these projects have gone on to great success on other networks and in other venues (most famously Mad Men, which HBO turned down and went to air with AMC).

More impressive is the fact that HBO turned down no less than three absolutely killer shows based on books which would have been a perfect fit for them and perfect follow-ups for Game of Thrones, being fantasy shows but "different" kinds of fantasy to Thrones. The first of these was The Dark Tower, based on the Stephen King novels. HBO developed this both as a joint TV-film cross-media project and then just as a TV show. However, HBO got cold feet and dropped it. It's been picked up by Sony Pictures as a major film project and shooting starts in a few weeks with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey starring. The second was Preacher, based on the violent but critically-acclaimed graphic novel series by Garth Ennis. The series was in an advanced state of development when HBO apparently (and uncharacteristically) got cold feet over the show's controversial stance on religion and dropped it. AMC picked it up and shooting has wrapped on the first season, which should debut in a few months. Early buzz on pilot screenings is extremely positive, and the show should make an excellent companion series for The Walking Dead. Finally, there was American Gods. HBO had developed multiple pilot scripts with Neil Gaiman, the writer of the novel, and had looked virtually certain to greenlight it when they very abruptly dropped it, to the puzzlement of just about everybody. Starz has since picked up the series and production is currently underway in Toronto.

So, we have to ask, what does HBO have on its development plate right now, what is available and what could they do to produce a follow-up hit show to Thrones? Let's take a look.

Westworld

Westworld is based on Michael Crichton's 1973 film of the same name and is set in a futuristic theme park where the robot exhibits start to break free and take control. This has an absolutely stellar cast, with Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden and Thandie Newton starring and Jonathan Nolan writing and directing. The series is in the final stages of filming right now for a debut airdate expected at the end of this year. However, the show has experienced major production problems including a four-month filming shutdown amidst rumours over writing problems and controversy over some of the actors' contracts. In addition, the show seems to be mainly a cerebral affair about the future of artificial intelligence and consciousness, which will make for a stirring SF series (and this is HBO's first-ever outright science fiction show) but is unlikely to win over a mass audience.

Watchmen

Director Zack Snyder (The 300, Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice) actually made a movie of Watchmen in 2009, to a mixed critical reception (I liked it). However, even the most ardent admirers would have to admit that the film had to rush a lot of Alan Moore's material from the seminal 1985 graphic novel to fit into just two hours, so Snyder has gone to HBO with the intention of re-staging the story as a TV show (possibly drawing on some of the materials published since, such as the Beyond Watchmen project). HBO seem to be interested, but have not formally greenlit the project yet. With Snyder committed to Superman and Justice League movies for some time, this would likely be handled by other writers. To be honest, this could be a really good series, but I suspect it would only work as a mini-series rather than an ongoing, multi-year project.

Foundation

Jonathan Nolan has proposed a TV adaptation of Isaac Asimov's seven Foundation novels to HBO, who have optioned the book rights ahead of further discussions and seeing a script. HBO took the step of buying the rights whilst they were already held by Roland Emmerich (who was developing a film before the buy-off), so seem to be pretty serious about this project. However, Nolan is now working on Westworld so this project has likely been kicked down the curb a fair ways.

Foundation is one of science fiction's most famous series. Set 22,000 years in the future, it chronicles the collapse of the vast Galactic Empire and the attempt by a scientific thinktank, the Foundation, to preserve scientific knowledge and wisdom through an estimated thousand years of barbarism to follow. The novels span roughly the first half of this period, culminating in the rediscovery of the long-forgotten homeworld of humanity, Earth.

This could make for an interesting series, especially if HBO adopt an anthology approach and jump forward decades or centuries between seasons a la True Detective. However, there will have to be a lot of invention for the series as Asimov's view of the future is seriously outdated by this time.

I, Claudius

As has been said a few times, Game of Thrones feels very much like a spiritual successor to Bruno Heller's excellent historical drama series Rome, which aired for two seasons and 23 episodes between 2005 and 2007. Rome was cancelled due to budgetary concerns, something HBO later regretted when they checked the DVD and foreign screening sales. However, HBO left the elaborate outdoor set in Italy standing as a tourist attraction and a filming location for other series and documentaries. In 2011 HBO announced that they were developing a fresh adaptation of Robert Graves's classic novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God, previously filmed by the BBC in 1976. Given that the original plan was for Rome to jump forward to this story in its fourth or fifth season had it stayed on the air anyway, this could be very much a clever way of getting Rome back on the air, potentially using the same sets but sadly (due to a time-skip forward of several decades) not the same actors. However, HBO have not commented on the project in some years, so the enthusiasm for it may have fizzled out, which would be a shame as a new series set in Ancient Rome would be very welcome.

The Warlord Chronicles

HBO don't have the rights to this book trilogy, but Bad Wolf Productions do, having optioned it a few months ago. Bad Wolf also have a co-development deal with both HBO and the BBC, but the BBC are likely too busy with Bad Wolf's His Dark Materials series to take this on as well. Hopefully, HBO will give this a look. Written by Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom, Sharpe), The Warlord Chronicles are a "realistic" take on the legend of King Arthur, set during the 5th and 6th Centuries in a Britain riven by religious and political turmoil. The Roman Empire has collapsed, but some of the Roman settlers and armies remain. The native Britons are trying to re-establish themselves, but the first waves of Saxons are starting to invade from the east. Roman religious cults and the newly-arrived religion of Christianity are struggling against the native pagan druids and other old faiths. It's a time of great danger, enhanced when King Uther Pendragon dies and the protection of his infant son and heir Mordred falls to Uther's bastard child Arthur. Unable to ever become king, Arthur instead takes on the mantle of Warlord.

It's a rich and atmospheric take on the legend of King Arthur, noted for its much greater focus on realism. There were no knights (in the medieval sense), massive stone fortresses or armies in the tens of thousands at this time, so the focus is on fighting with spears and shields, holdfasts are mostly made of wood and a formidable army might only consist of a few hundred - or even a few dozen! - men. Merlin is a randy priest of the old faith, Guinevere is a warrior chief and Lancelot a warrior with tremendous PR skills. The whole story is being related in exacting detail by a warrior of the Round Table, Derfel Cadarn, to some monks. To his horror, they start "sexing up" the stories with magic swords and ladies in lakes, forming the legend as we currently know it.

This would make for a great follow-up to Game of Thrones, especially if handled by a good writer. It might only be a three-season project (the books are quite slim) but there's still plenty of excellent material to get onto the screen.

Wild Cards

This would be a very different kind of story to Thrones, but potentially one with broad appeal. This series of short story collections and "mosaic novels" began in 1987 with Wild Cards and now extends across 23 books and several comics. George R.R. Martin created the universe, edits all of the books and has written several stories for the series, but the stories are the actual creation of many other writers. It seems likely, especially if HBO decides not to proceed with Watchmen, that they'll want to dip their toes into the superhero genre at some point and this story of flawed people who are more likely to be broken or corrupted by their powers than turned into paragons is right up HBO's alley. It would also tie in with HBO's development deal with Martin and give them lots of stories to adapt as well as the freedom to create their own material. The rights were until recently held by SyFy, but are due to lapse imminently.

The premise of the series is that in 1946 an alien virus is released on Earth. Thousands of people are affected: 90% are killed, 9% turn into malformed "Jokers" with useless powers and abilities and 1% into "Aces" or outright superheroes. An alternative history of the 20th Century unfolds as the Aces and Jokers take part in historical events, face discrimination and try to make their own lives in a changed world.

Temeraire

This is a bit more of a stretch because HBO's name has not come up in relation to it. However, it would be a good fit. Years ago, Peter Jackson eyed Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels with the intention of turning them into films. However, first the Tintin trilogy and then the Hobbit movies got in the way. With two Tintin movies still to make and other projects on the fire, Jackson is likely years away from even getting close to making this as a film. A few years back he acknowledged this, combined with the problem of adapting nine books, and confirmed he was repurposing it as a TV series with him only taking a producer's credit.

HBO joining forces with Weta Workshop to make a TV show about dragons fighting for both sides during the Napoleonic Wars? That's a high concept that I think would be up HBO's street and I think could make for an entertaining (if highly-budgeted) show.

Welcome to the Lost rewatch project.
Over the next few months I plan to watch all 121 episodes of the TV
series which aired for six seasons from 2004 to 2010. This is very much a
rewatch thread, with the show watched with knowledge of what is to come in later seasons. If you've never watched Lost before, you definitely do not want to read this blog series.

Without further ado, let us continue after the jump.

Josh Holloway rocking the smart business look as Sawyer in full conman mode.

Tad Williams's classic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy is being rejacketed for a new American trade paperback edition being launched later this year.

The new editions come ahead of the publication of two new novels set in the same world, the stand-alone (ish) The Heart of What Was Lost in January 2017 and then The Witchwood Crown, the opening volume of The Last King of Osten Ard, in April 2017.

The new cover art is also, like the original editions, by the supremely talented Michael Whelan. George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss and Christopher Paolini provide fresh cover blurbs as well.

Saturday, 23 April 2016

The Excelsior-class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B, previously seen in Star Trek: Generations, will likely be around during the timeframe of the new series, but will not be the setting.

Relatively little has been confirmed about the new series, but rumours hint that it will be an anthology series which will jump between different eras and locations in Star Trek's history from season to season. The first season is rumoured to take place between the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: The Next Generation and will not involve a ship called Enterprise.

This is the first Star Trek TV series to shoot in Canada: all five previous live-action shows were shot in and around Los Angeles.

Casting has been underway for the last few months, so hopefully we'll start getting casting news soon.

Friday, 22 April 2016

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have expanded on previous reports that Game of Thrones is fast approaching its endgame, with their preference being to end the series 13 episodes after the end of Season 6. Their previously-mooted suggestion was a seven-episode seventh season followed by a six-episode eighth season. However, in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, they have confirmed there is some flexibility.

They now say that the story could be concluded in 10 episodes - potentially a seventh season of ten episodes as normal - but may require as many as 15. In that case we may see both the seventh and eighth seasons shortened to spread them out more evenly (so maybe eight episodes in Season 7 and seven in Season 8). They're currently mapping out how the story ends - and most of the scripts for Season 7 should have been written by now given they start shooting in just a couple of months - so there should be a firm plan in place shortly.

This does explain why the show was not renewed for an eighth season, because if they do decide they can get the story done in just 10 more episodes, they won't need an eighth season. However, my gut feeling is that 10 episodes is just not enough to wrap the story up and there will be a shortened eighth season of some kind.

Welcome to the second in a new project for the blog: a rewatch of the TV series Lost.
Over the next few months I plan to watch all 121 episodes of the TV
series which aired for six seasons from 2004 to 2010. This is very much a
rewatch thread, with the show watched with knowledge of what is to come in later seasons. If you've never watched Lost before, you definitely do not want to read this blog series.

Thursday, 21 April 2016

HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for a seventh season, but - so far - not an eighth. HBO has been in discussions with Game of Thrones producers and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss about when to end the show and how many episodes are left.

Just a few days ago, Benioff and Weiss confirmed that after the sixth season (which starts airing in the USA on Sunday) of 10 episodes, they believe there are only 13 hours worth of story left to wrap up the saga. Their preferred plan is for a shortened seventh season of 7 episodes in 2017, followed by an eighth and final season of 6 episodes in 2018. This would also allow them to concentrate more budget and allow more writing and shooting time for each episode.

HBO's preference has been for more episodes, and discussions have been in place on how to best achieve that. However, fans have been vocal in suggesting that, if there are really only 13 episodes left, then it may be better for HBO to order a larger, longer single season of 13 episodes with a corresponding budget hike, perhaps dividing the seventh season into two parts airing four or six months apart. Alternatively HBO may order a single season of 13 episodes, but split in the manner Benioff and Weiss suggested for a "Season 7, Part 1" and "Season 7, Part 2", similar to what HBO has done in the past for The Sopranos and Oz. AMC also did something similar for the final seasons of both Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

Whichever solution HBO has come up with, or whether they're waiting until a few episodes of the new season have aired and seeing what the ratings are like before committing to a plan, we should find out soon.

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

The gods are all dead, leaving remnants of their glory scattered all over the world. Three great races - humans, varls (giant Vikings) and horseborn (centaurs) - have survived the downfall of religion only to face a long, grinding war against the dredge, a plague of metal horrors that have emerged from the uttermost north. After years of fighting the dredge and skirmishing with one another and within their own ranks, humanity and varlkind have united...just as the dredge pour out of the north in a horde of unstoppable thousands and the sun halts in the sky. The great cities of the north are destroyed and warriors of men and varl alike have to fleet to survive, guiding thousands of refugees to safety with them. Two great caravans, one on the west coast and one on the east, assemble and attempt to flee to safety.

It's a rich, compelling backdrop for a fantasy narrative, but this isn't a novel. Released in January 2014 on PC, The Banner Saga is a video game that borrows from many that come before it but assembles numerous tropes into something new, fresh and interesting. The strategy side of the game comes in the form of a survival game where you have to make some very tough choices: push your caravan on to the limits of their endurance to reach the next town more quickly, but risk being exhausted if the dredge attack? Do you peacefully negotiate with the ruler of the next town who is skeptical of the news of the dredge invasion, taking up valuable time, or seize his town's supplies for the good of the caravan? Like The Oregon Trail or Battlestar Galactica, balancing survival, prudence, caution and the need for morale-boosting military victories can be tricky and, if you make the wrong choice, the results can be catastrophic.

There's also a more personal element to these decisions. Both caravans are led by generals and heroes, along with a mixture of ambassadors, archers and other personalities. These heroes can take part in direct combat with the dredge, which plays out on an XCOM-style turn-based battlefield. There are some differences to the formula: there is no cover, since fighting is mostly done hand-to-hand, and combat requires breaking through an enemy's armour before inflicting actual damage on them. Your heroes level up, but you have to be careful as you use "renown" to level your characters, buy better gear and buy more supplies for your caravan. Don't concentrate on your heroes enough and you risk falling behind the tougher dredge in combat. Focus on them too much and you may not be able to feed your refugees.

There's also a striking imbalance between the two caravans: the one heading along the coast to the west is mostly a military force, comprised mainly of varls whose skills on the battlefield are immense. The one in the east is comprised mainly of humans, who are great for hit and run, fast attacks and have ranged archers, but can't go toe-to-toe with the tougher dredge as easily. The game alternates between the two caravans until they come together to defend one central location.

It's a rich, compelling game backed up by some excellently-written characters, such as reluctant archer-turned-leader Rook, the sneering human prince Ludin whose arrogance hides a genuinely brave warrior, and Hakon, a skilled and mighty varl warleader whose gruff confidence belies his uncertainties at being a leader. On the darker side of things are heroes who say the right things and do well on the battlefield, but whose ambitions and true nature are much darker. Treachery is never too far away in The Banner Saga. But this is also a remarkably beautiful game, with a striking, rich art style and an utterly fantastic soundtrack.

The game is the creation of Stoic, a studio of ex-BioWare writers and anyone who's familiar with the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series should be aware of their ability to force the player into a position where they have to make tough decisions. However, the two Banner Saga games are these guys with the EA-branded training gloves of BioWare firmly removed. Choices this time around are harsher, the consequences grimmer if things go wrong and there are times when there is no optimal solution, only the one that will save the largest number of people. Don't expect too much in the way of exposition, either: you are thrust into the midst of a desperate struggle for survival and the explanations for why and how things are happening will only emerge in quieter moments between battles.

The Banner Saga wasn't a perfect game, with some apparently random difficulty spikes in battles and a final engagement that could be almost unwinnable, but later patches solved these problems and The Banner Saga 2 has addressed these problems with more enemy and ally types and the introduction of a whole new race, the horseborn, who can provide formidable support on the battlefield.

The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2 are both available on Steam now. The Banner Saga is also available on Apple and Android mobile devices, as well as X-Box One and PlayStation 4. The Banner Saga 2 should also be making its ways to those devices in the future.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Welcome to the first in a new project for the blog: a rewatch of the TV series Lost. Over the next few months I plan to watch all 121 episodes of the TV series which aired for six seasons from 2004 to 2010. This is very much a rewatch thread, with the show watched with knowledge of what is to come in later seasons. If you've never watched Lost before, you definitely do not want to read this blog series.

Without further ado, let us begin.

What happens when you don't return the folding trays to their upright position.

Now: Oceanic Airways Flight 815 is on a transpacific flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles. Six hours into the flight the plane loses communications. The pilot changes course for Fiji, planning to make an emergency landing. Two hours later, with the plane over a thousand miles off its original course, it starts suffering serious turbulence. The plane suddenly plummets out of the sky, breaking into three sections. The fuselage crashes onto the beach of a tropical island, the cockpit lands in the jungle nearby and the tail section's fate is unknown.

There are 48 survivors of the crash in the fuselage section (initially 49, until Gary Troup gets sucked into a still-active engine, which then explodes). Most prominent amongst these is Dr. Jack Shephard, whose medical expertise and quick thinking immediately saves four other survivors (Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Claire Littleton, Rose Nadler and some random dude). He also helps another survivor who has shrapnel embedded in his stomach. Initially to his own disquiet, Jack finds himself elected as an unofficial leader in the group. Other prominent members include Sayid Jarrah, Kate Austen, James "Sawyer" Ford, married couple Jin-Soo and Sun-Hwa Kwon, Charlie Pace, Boone Carlyle and his stepsister Shannon Rutherford, Michael Dawson and his son, Walt Lloyd. Another survivor, John Locke, initially keeps to the background but proves to have some survival skills that help the other survivors in quiet, modest ways.

After the initial shock of the crash, the survivors regroup. Jack, who once took some flying lessons, thinks that there should be a radio transceiver in the survival gear in the cockpit of the plane. At dawn, he, Kate and Charlie set out to find the cockpit section. However, during the night the survivors hear unusual sounds in the jungle and see trees moving. As the trio head into the woods Charlie reveals that he is the bassist in rock band Drive Shaft, who have had one successful, worldwide hit song but have been struggling to achieve further success.

The group finds the cockpit and, more luckily, that the pilot, Seth Norris, has survived. They retrieve the transceiver but Seth tells them that they are far off-course. Rescue efforts will be focused on the flight path between Australia and California, and will likely miss them. They hear the sounds in the jungle again, this time right on top of them, and Seth is dragged out of the plane and bloodily killed. Jack, Kate and Charlie scatter into the woods.

Whilst the trio have been away, Walt (who is searching for his dog, Vincent) finds some handcuffs in the jungle. He gives them to his dad, Michael. Michael shows them to the rest of the group, who conclude that a criminal was on the plane in custody. Sawyer accuses Sayid, on account of the man next to him on the plane being killed and Sayid's hands being covered for the flight. The two fight, but Jack breaks up the fight. Sayid was an electronics communication officer in the Iraqi Army (which hardly endears him to Sawyer more) and manages to get the transceiver working, but they are blocked from picking up any communications by nearby mountains. Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Shannon, Boone and Charlie decide to mount a second hike to higher ground. During this hike they are attacked by a bear which Sawyer shoots dead with a gun he retrieved from the US Marshal, who is the shrapnel-embedded guy. The bear, weirdly, turns out to be a polar bear, to the party's befuddlement.

"Behold! Foreshadowing of the final season storyline. Probably."

Back on the beach Jack manages to stabilise the US Marshal, but he wakes up and demands to know, "Where is she?" Meanwhile, John Locke plays backgammon by himself and agrees to teach Walt how to play. He tells him that backgammon is an interesting game as it pits two equal but opposite forces against one another, one light and one dark. Walt tells Locke that he was living in Australia with his mother, but she died recently. He hardly knows his dad.

Reaching high ground they discover that their signal can't get out because another signal is already active. Tuning in, they hear a repeated distress call from a woman speaking in French. Shannon, who has a basic understanding of the language, says she is in distress, reporting the deaths of everyone who was with her. The message repeats with an iteration counter and Sayid works out that the message has been repeating constantly for over sixteen years. Charlie asks, "Guys, where are we?"

Flashbacks: On the plane Jack has a stiff drink courtesy of flight stewardess Cindy. He reassures a neighbouring passenger, Rose, who is a poor flyer. Charlie rushes past, trying to get away from the flight attendants who have noticed him acting oddly. He snorts heroin in the toilet before trying to flush the bag away. It is revealed that Kate was the marshal's prisoner. They exchanged words on the plane before it went into a crash dive. Unlike Jack and Charlie, Kate remained conscious during the crash and was aware of the tail section of the plane detaching and falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Major WTFery: Polar bear, the Monster, the French SOS beacon, the backgammon allusion.

Hindsight: Why is the Man in Black going ape in the forest for no reason before eating the pilot? And how does Cindy get from the front of the plane (where Charlie is hiding) to right at the back in time to join the tail section survivors? On the plus side of things, Locke's explanation of two equal forces of light and dark battling one another does actually kind of sum up the entire series, if you squint a bit.

Locke being randomly mysterious in the pilot.

Review: Well, that's how you launch a TV series, with the most expensive pilot in network history ($15 million, a record still unmatched, I believe) and one of the more impressive action sequences used to launch a show. Today it'd be much cheaper and mostly done in CGI, but there's a real sense of physicality to having a real aircraft smashed up, dumped on a beach in Hawaii and then blowing it up. The location shooting is also beautiful (especially watching the show in full HD on Blu-Ray for the first time), even if after six years of watching the show you do start being able to identify the same copse of trees being used for the 37th time.

The pacing of the pilot is excellent, with the show landing on its feet and then just moving constantly. Considering the show has to introduce no less than fifteen regular characters this is some feat, but the lean and economical script does just enough to bring in each character, give them an identifiable trait or tic or two and then develops them through their dialogue and how they handle the crash: Sayid takes charge in a military fashion, Sawyer starts looting and Shannon gives herself a pedicure. There is the sense here that each character is hiding things and has a lot of baggage going on, which the flashback structure begins to allow them to explore.

On the negative side of things, the extremely limited time they had for script development and pre-production is rather telling. There are a few wince-inducing lines and the feeling that the producers don't quite know what the hell they're going to do with half the characters at this point. But overall, if you want to land your series with a bang and keep going, this is how you do it. (****)

People being people, the welfare of Vincent the dog became a topic of major concern among viewers, much moreso than the fate of the human characters. Vincent is also the only character apart from Jack to be in the very first and very last scenes of the show, proving that clearly he is the most important character.

Flashbacks: Kate is making her own way across Australia. 100km outside Melbourne she runs out of money and sleeps in a farm outhouse. The next day the farmer, Ray, wakes her up. He lost his wife eight months earlier and is finding running the farm a chore, especially since he only has one arm. He asks Kate - using the alias "Annie" - to stay on and help him. She agrees. Three months later she decides it's time to go and accept Ray's offer of a lift to the station. However, Ray had spotted her wanted poster in the local town and already called the cops to claim the $23,000 reward, citing the crippling mortgage on the property. They are intercepted outside town by the Marshal in his car. Kate runs the car off the road. Ray is seriously injured. Kate could leave him and escape, but instead pulls him clear before the car can catch fire. The Marshal takes her into custody.

On the Island: Jack continues to treat the Marshal, who is distressed because Kate is free. Jack and Hurley both see a wanted poster of Kate the Marshal is carrying, but Jack declines to ask what she did, saying it doesn't matter at the moment. The other party camps overnight before they return to the crash site and decide not to tell the other survivors about the SOS, as it may demoralise them. Boone tries to take Sawyer's gun to stand guard, but Shannon notes that he doesn't even know how to use it. The group unanimously votes to give Kate the gun instead. Returning to the beach camp, Sayid starts organising water collecting parties. Kate tells Jack about the French SOS signal, but declines to tell him anything else.

The rest of the survivors attend to survival matters. Michael is unhappy that Walt has been talking to Locke, a stranger, and asks him to stay away. Michael stumbles across Sun whilst she is washing, to their mutual embarrassment. Michael is happy to hear from Jack that Walt's dog, Vincent, survived the crash and is in the jungle somewhere. Locke is working on carving a whistle. Jack ransacks the plane for antibiotics to treat the Marshal and is disgusted to see Sawyer looting the plane for food drinks and cigarettes. Sawyer suggests they put the Marshal out of his misery but Jack refuses. Jin, aware that he and Sun risk being alienated from the group because they can't speak English, makes some Korean-style seafood for the rest of the group but finds his efforts rejected by Hurley but enthusiastically received by Claire, who is also happy to feel her baby moving.

Kate tries to talk to the Marshal, but he comes enraged and attacks her, despite his agony. Jack is annoyed and tells Kate he knows that she was the prisoner. Jack reluctantly confirms that the Marshal is going to die, they just don't have the medical equipment or antibiotics needed to save him. Kate and the Marshal have a final conversation in which she says her only concern was that Ray got his reward. The Marshal confirms he did. Ray then asks Sawyer to finish him off with his gun. Sawyer agrees. Unfortunately, he misses the Marshal's heart and nicks his lung, ensuring a long and agonising death. Jack, incredulous at Sawyer's stupidity, is forced to kill the Marshal himself. Kate later offers to tell Jack what she did to get arrested, but Jack tells her he's not interested in finding out.
The next morning Locke blows his whistle. Hearing the sound, the dog Vincent returns to the beach. Locke ties him up and lets Michael know about it, so Michael can pretend he found the dog instead and help his growing relationship with his son.

"Shall I fill you in on my surprisingly coherent backstory?"

"Nah, I'll just watch the flashbacks as they come along."

Major WTFery: What did Kate do?

Hindsight: Actually, Kate's backstory, although a little more long-winded and elaborate than strictly necessary (remember that time she dated Nathan Fillion?), is one of the more cohesive storylines in Lost that actually makes sense. Kate's affection for Ray also makes sense once you know what happened with her stepfather. On the negative side, given what we learn later about Locke's backstory, I'm not sure if I entirely buy him being able to carve a whistle precisely so he can blow it at a frequency to attract dogs. I do like the fan suggestion that Lock's whistling also attracted the boars which turn up next episode to cause mayhem.

Review: This is less of a cohesive episode and more Part 3 of the pilot, but it's well-made enough that it works. Damon Lindelof takes over as solo writer (it'll be a short while before Carlton Cuse shows up to help him) and long-running director Jack Bender delivers his first episode and both make a good fist of it. It's a typical episode in that not necessarily a huge amount happens of dynamic forward plot movement, but it delivers on character development, humour and atmosphere. One of the better things about Lost is that the writers feel like they can do more subtle and natrualistic characterisation (although this may be because they just don't have the time to be overt). Another show might have had Ray give a whole speech about how Kate reminds him of his dead wife or has become the daughter he never had, but here they have to rely on the actors simply giving good performances. (****)